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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

BIG News...

No, friends and future grandparents. Andy and I are not jumping on the baby train quite yet. Most everyone we've shared our news with half expects us to say we are with child, but we aren't quite there yet. Sorry to all that we have disappointed. :) Our news actually involves this guy...

Getting a new job here...

Yep, you guessed it. Andy has secretly been attending medical school and he is going to be a doctor! Kidding, kidding. Andy has accepted the Controller position at Redmond Regional Medical Center in Rome, Georgia! Crazy, right? In case you don't know what a Controller does, he will be working with the accounting staff at the hospital to...you know...control the money or something. In fact, the only thing I really know is he will work in a hospital and do his accounting thing. I apologize in advance to all of the Controllers in the world that I have offended (including Andy).

We prayed and stewed over the decision to even apply for weeks. After he applied, we found out that he basically moved right through Round 1 (phone interview), and we later learned that he was one of three that would be going down to the facility to formally interview. Well, remember that crazy IKEA/Benadryl shot weekend in Atlanta? That was only half of the real story. We traveled on to Rome from Atlanta (only about an hour, people!) and Andy interviewed that Monday. I dropped him off at 7:45 or so that morning, and he didn't walk back out of the hospital doors until nearly 4:00 that afternoon!

Yes, this is me taking a picture from the car at the first sight of him. I was like an overprotective mom on a child's first day of school. I had been a ball of nerves all day wondering how it was going, how he would feel about his answers to questions, whether he had spilled anything from lunch on his new suit--you know, the important stuff. To see this boy's face meant I could finally get some answers!

Well, fast forward a few weeks, and this guy must have done okay. He was offered the job last Monday evening, and he accepted the next day. It truly was an offer that we would be crazy to refuse, so here we are preparing our home for the market (don't get me started--this one is tough!), trying to find a place to rent in Rome, I'm hopefully securing employment, etc.

In short, this was a long-term decision with short-term consequences (selling the house we've only been in a year, resigning my job, leaving our church, saying "goodbye" to family and friends in the area, you get the picture). We knew Andy would eventually want to move on from audit to do something else, but we really felt like he should stay with HCA. Thus, the decision to move into an HCA hospital came up, and out of all of the locations that could have been available, I feel certain Rome was a great option for us. Many have asked, "Didn't you know moving would be a possibility before you bought your new home?" Honest answer: No. When we chose to sell our first home and buy something different, it was because at the time that is what we thought needed to be done. Moving on from audit seemed a world away to Andy (us) at that point, and we made the best decision we could at the time. Should we have had more foresight way back when about the possibility of a move? Maybe. But to be honest, being newly married without children, you sometimes make choices in the moment because YOU CAN. Andy and I are trying to move forth in the Rome direction and not worry so much about things we can't change now. If we could go back in time and know all that we do now, would we still purchase our current home that we love dearly? Likely not. But then again, you know what they say about hindsight...

We have been told this will likely be a 3-5 year move, and then we will go from there. I am extremely proud of Andy for stepping up and trying for this position, and even prouder that he got the job. Of course, I have always known how smart and easy-to-work-with he can be, but I am so thankful that someone else saw that in him as well. Is it going to be easy to make this transition? No. Not even close. It has already been difficult. But we are a team, and thankfully, we believe in each other. We are praying for the best, and bracing for the worst.

We are going to visit Rome again soon for me to interview for the one-and-only available teaching position in their two school districts--God must be at work for me to even have the opportunity to interview. We will also be attempting (again) to secure a rental to live in. We would greatly appreciate your prayers and thoughts in the coming weeks. There is a lot going on and a lot that needs to come together at the right time.

And lastly, if you are finding out about our move for the first time through this post, I apologize. Life has gotten so crazy that we have not even been able to think of all of the people we need to try to get in touch with to tell. It isn't that we don't love you, we just can't think straight right now!